Proposed Additional Services
A second hourly service to Newport is proposed for the line. A South East Wales Transport Alliance (Sewta) report in 2006 noted that additional infrastructure work would be required to enable the service to become half-hourly (one train running to Cardiff and another to Newport). An additional seven miles (11 km) of double track would be needed between Aberbeeg Junction and Crosskeys and additional platforms at Newbridge and Llanhilleth stations would be required. According to Network Rail, the points system at Gaer junction would need to be replaced before the line could be linked from Rogerstone station to Newport station. Major resignalling works would also need to be carried out. Passenger trains travel faster than for freight trains, so the signals need to be further apart. The Welsh Assembly Government announced in July 2009 that the relevant works to enable direct trains between Ebbw Vale and Newport would be complete by 2011. Work on the track at Gaer Junction, Newport – connecting the Ebbw Valley Railway to Newport – had been scheduled for completion by October 2010, but no decision on the link will now be made before March 2011.
Rebuilding the branch to Abertillery, to replace the shuttle bus service, has been planned. The proposal for a new station and track (which would need to be re-laid for 1 ¾ miles (3 km) between Aberbeeg and Abertillery), is not included in the Welsh Assembly Government's National Transport Plan.
A feasibility study and further design work for a new station at Ebbw Vale Town has been commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government. The proposed station on the former Corus steelworks site, which closed in 2002, is a mile north of the line's current terminus, Ebbw Vale Parkway, and forecast to cost £6.5 million.
Read more about this topic: Ebbw Valley Railway
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